The Department of State final rule implementing the vacatur of the 2019 interim final rule (IFR) that required individuals to have a valid passport to participate in the diversity visa lottery by removing the amendments published in the 2019 IFR from the Code of Federal Regulations. The final rule is effective 6/10/22.
The Department of State removes from the Code of Federal Regulations amendments that were published in an interim final rule on June 5, 2019, requiring principal entrants submitting an electronic diversity visa entry form to provide certain information, including the entrant’s unique serial or issuance number associated with the principal entrant’s valid, unexpired passport or claim an exemption to the passport requirement. This document responds to a ruling of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, which vacated the rule.
On June 5, 2019, the Department issued an IFR titled “Visas: Diversity Immigrants” in the Federal Register. The IFR amended Department regulations at 22 CFR 42.33(b)(1) to require a Diversity Visa program entrant to provide on the electronic DV entry form the unique serial or issuance number associated with that entrant’s valid, unexpired passport, as well as the passport’s country or authority of issuance, and its expiration date, unless the entrant claimed a valid passport exemption pursuant to 22 CFR 42.2(d), (e), or (g)(2). The IFR also clarified and amended its regulation at 22 CFR 42.33(b)(1) to notify entrants that failure to accurately include any information required by the regulation would result in mandatory disqualification for that selection year.
On February 4, 2022, the District Court vacated the IFR. E.B. v. U.S. Department of State, No. 19-2856 (D.D.C. Feb. 4, 2022). To comply with the District Court’s ruling, the Department removes the regulatory changes promulgated by the IFR. This rule also makes a technical correction to a punctuation mark in 22 CFR 42.33(b)(1)(vii).